Final Fantasy 7 Remake – How To Switch Characters

Change your character on the fly.

The original Final Fantasy VII release had a lot of characters to choose from, but Final Fantasy VII Remake only introduced a portion of those characters so far due to only being part of the story. In total, the game gives you four different characters to play as throughout the game with Cloud, Tifa, Barret, and Aerith. With an action based approach more akin to Final Fantasy XV than in the past, some may have been worried that you would be only allowed to play as Cloud. Thankfully, you can switch between each of your current party members during the game and it’s done rather easily.

How To Switch Characters

While there are four playable characters in Final Fantasy 7 Remake, only three can be used at a time. This is typically dictated by the story, but the post-game also allows you to take on some of the Combat Simulator challenges with whichever group you want.

Each of the four players has a different combat style, with Cloud being the slower powerful melee fighter and Tifa the more agile melee fighter, while Barret and Aerith are more range based. This means that each of them are better suited for certain scenarios than others.

For instance, Cloud and Tifa are great for dealing direct damage to enemies on the ground, but airborne enemies can be a struggle with their non-magic attacks. Barret and Aerith on the other hand thrive on these types of enemies. Thankfully, it’s very easy to switch between them in battle to help with this.

Outside of a few occasions, you will start each battle in control of Cloud. At that point, you can then press up or down on the D-Pad and it will instantly switch to another character. If you have three in your party at the time, pressing the same direction you initially pressed a second time will switch to the third character. You can press it again to switch back to Cloud, or go in the reverse direction as well.